London, England, United Kingdom
• Project: Determining predictive genetics/immune/tumour microenvironment signature leading to radiotherapy resistance in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC). This project will be supervised by Prof. Mahvash Tavassoli. • Planned techniques to be learned: Gene expression profiling, CyTOF (mass cytometry), and bioinformatics approaches to patient stratification for appropriate individualised treatment.
• Project: Assessing immune biomarkers of breast cancer patients with brain metastases and combination treatment in organoids. This project will be supervised by Dr. Anthony Kong and Dr. Rachel Evans. • Planned techniques to be learned: Multiparameter immune biomarker analysis (tumour and blood), flow cytometry, growing patient-derived organoids, and co-culturing them with and without immune cells.
• Extension of the final-year research project, using IBEX to investigate the immune cell composition of retinae from the Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis (EAU) mouse model. Staying in the same lab and supervised by Dr. Colin Chu.
• Dissertation project: Investigating Immune Cell Alterations in Response to Corticosteroid Treatment in the Inflamed Mouse Retina Using Multiplexed Immunohistochemistry (Iterative Bleaching Extends Multiplexity, IBEX). The project is supervised by Dr. Colin Chu. • Techniques acquired: - Multiplexed immunohistochemistry on retinal tissue, following an approach called Iterative Bleaching Extends Multiplexity (IBEX). - Confocal fluorescence microscopy - Cryosection - Primary processing of confocal images using the software Imaris (e.g., channel brightness, filter applying, etc.). - Analysis of confocal images using the software Aivia (e.g., cell segmentation, cell phenotyper, etc.).
• I joined Dr. Jiajie Hou’s lab, where I assisted PhD students in the lab with experimental preparations, primarily pipetting reagent mixtures. The general focus of the lab is on boosting the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy on Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). • Techniques acquired: - gel electrophoresis - polymerase chain reaction (PCR)